The hammer was perhaps Mankind's first tool. Designed simply for pounding, the original hammer was a stone held in the hand. Vase paintings demonstrate that the ancient Greek bronzesmiths were using stone "hammers" in this way as late as the fourth century B.C. With the Romans came the use of the recognizable claw hammer useful for carpenters in their efforts to build and secure wooden structures.
Contemporary hammers useful in carpentry are generally composed of a straight handle disposed at right angles to a hammerhead. Of these, the claw hammer remains ubiquitous, being designed so that the hammerhead itself, most often composed of iron, or a hard metal alloy, has a relatively flat striking area designed to make contact with a nail or other fastener. The end opposite this striking area is designed to remove nails through the use of a curved split peen or "claw."
While using the hammer, the holder employs the full movement of the arm and wrist to strike a nail with the hammerhead striking area with sufficient force to drive the nail into a given media, typically wood. When the hammerhead makes contact with the nail, the handle portion is generally parallel to the planar working surface.
On a modern construction site, carpenters and others have many opportunities to employ the claw hammer, or other similar hammers, to complete many tasks. In addition, many of the operations for which hammers are used can now be completed through the use of a variety of pneumatic tools. These tools include nail guns that make securing or building wooden structures considerably easier and faster than previously possible.
However, though many operations in rough framing or carpentry generally are completed with a standard claw hammer, the construction of a home typically entails the creation of working surfaces that are in confined spaces or otherwise difficult to get to. In particular, toenailing joists is not easy. In these difficult operations, standard hammers are clumsy and inefficient. Similarly, pneumatic tools often cannot be employed at odd angles or in confined spaces. The expense of these pneumatic tools also makes them less than efficient on the job site when confronted with the need to secure floor joists, box ribbons, ceiling joists, rafters or other jobs in which nails must be put in at difficult angles.
Accordingly, a need exists for a hammer that can be easily employed to reach the confined spaces that typically are difficult to reach.